CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

A participatory project to collect and preserve the histories of the City University of New York

We found 52 items that match your search.

Letter: Economic Disparity

In this letter addressed to President Irwin Polishook of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), Jonathan Lang, Chair of the Doctoral Students’ Council (DSC), outlined the differences in salaries between adjunct and full-time faculty and expressed [...]

The Graduate Students' Union 1983-84: A position paper

Written by the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) in 1983-84, this position paper stated the intentions of the recently formed organization. The aims enumerated were to advance the interests of CUNY graduate students as employees (or prospective [...]

The Refuse: On Representation or Decertification

This issue of The Refuse (December 1983-January  1984), a Doctoral Students’ Council newletter, addressed the issue of retrenchment at CUNY, pointing to several articles that had mischaracterized CUNY’s relationship to labor precarity and [...]

PTU Newsletter (vol. 1., no. 1)

The debut newsletter in 1986 of PTU View, was published by a group devoted to fighting for the rights of part-time staff at CUNY. Included were listed contacts at various CUNY campuses; announcements of several Spring meetings; and a detailed [...]

GSU Denied Room for Meeting

This document, filed in 1986, included both the original memo from the Graduate Center's Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Geoffrey Marshall, and the Graduate Student Union’s (GSU) response. In the initial memo, the permission to use a room [...]

PTU View

The August 1986 PTU View newsletter called for adjunct faculty to sign a "union authorization" card. In addition to listing how the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) had failed to represent the interests of contingent faculty, the PTU’s demands [...]

CUNY Adjunct Alert (December 1998)

This newsletter, produced by CUNY Adjunct Unite! (CAU), discussed the PSC's alleged accusations against both CAU and The Adjunct Project for violating New York State's Taylor Law. The article argued that CAU is an independent organization and [...]

CUNY Adjunct Alert (February 1999)

This February 1998 CUNY Adjunct Alert newsletter responded to the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Vice President Richard Boris's positions on adjunct labor at CUNY in relation to the recently ratified contract expressed in the December 1998 issue [...]

"Another step in an ongoing international campaign for parity in adjunct pay and working conditions" – Campus Equity Week 2001 Memo

Written by Marcia Newfield, this 2001 memo reported on the "historic" meeting of unions in the USA and Canada to discuss adjunct labor. The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) held a roundtable at the Graduate Center called "Adjunct Equity in the [...]

Being an Adjunct is a Dead-End Street Flyer

Created by the Part-Time Instructional and Research Staff Union (PTU) in October 1986, this flyer bemoaned the status of adjunct faculty on CUNY campuses and argued for the election of the developing part-timers' "union". While acknowledging that [...]

Adjunct and Part-Time Faculty Caucus Contract Demands

Compiled by the "Adjunct and Part-Time Faculty Caucus", this twenty-item list included a number of contract demands specific to CUNY's large adjunct teaching population. The “Adjunct and Part-time Faculty Caucus” was a group formed in 1973. [...]

Adjuncts Reject PSC Contract

Tom Lynch's 1973 article, “Adjuncts Reject PSC Contract,” published in The Meridian, The Student Voice of Lehman College, argued that the raise was inadequate in so far as it was lower than the cost of living and was less than what full-time [...]

Response to the Adjunct and Part-time Faculty Caucus

This letter, dated May 14th, 1973, was addressed to David Allen and signed by David Newton of Chancellor Kibbee’s office. In the letter, Newton responded to a request to a meeting by asking for identification and affiliation, explaining that the [...]

Letter from the "Adjunct and Part-time Faculty Caucus"

Posted on the walls of John Jay College in 1973, this letter from the Executive Committee of the "Adjunct and Part-time Faculty Caucus" called for broader support from the CUNY community for the dignity and rights of adjunct faculty. In addition to [...]

Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Response to CUNY Coronavirus Plan

This March 2020 statement from the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) – the union representing 30,000 faculty, staff, and graduate students at the City University of New York (CUNY) – outlined the ambiguities in Chancellor Matos Rodriguez's [...]

Another City is Possible

This flyer announces a week of actions in NYC against budget cuts, austerity and global economic justice. May 14th concentrated on education and students with leafleting and picketing for quality public schools, free education and against student [...]

Occupy City University of NY Students and Faculty Protest

Ken Nash of the syndicated radio program, Building Bridges is in conversation with Hector Agredano (Occupy CUNY), Emma Francis-Snyder(Occupy CUNY), and Barbara Bowen (President of CUNY Professional Staff Congress) in this December 2011 30-minute [...]

Faculty Action, May 1976

Published in May 1976, in this inaugural issue of Faculty Action, the lead story urges members of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) to reject a recent contract negotiated by union leadership with the city and state. The issue also presents the [...]

Spheric: Ground Zero

This issue of Spheric, a Hunter College newspaper produced by activists from the CUNY Coalition, covers efforts organized by the Students Liberation Action Movement (SLAM!) to protest New York Governor George Pataki's plan to decrease state funding [...]

"Tough Times Ahead for Women"

Brooklyn College Women's Studies Program co-founder and professor of history, Renate Bridenthal, is featured in this Clarion article, which is the PSC-CUNY faculty union publication. The Clarion covered a speech Bridenthal gave at the CUNY Feminist [...]

PSC demonstration at Chambers St. Near City Hall

The Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union of CUNY faculty and staff, staged this demonstration in 1976 in the midst of the city's fiscal crisis. Colleges were being threatened with closure and budgets were being cut. Union members urged the [...]

March to Gracie Mansion

A young boy stretches his arms out as Hostos Community College students, professors and community organizers make their way to the Mayor's official residence to demand funding for the renovation of the 500 building. By 1977, the third part of the [...]

Hostos United for 500

This photograph depicts students and faculty with a sign at a rally being held across the street from "500" building a week before the building was taken over. As evident from the picture the Professional Staff Congress chapter was a driving force [...]

PSC-CUNY Joins Anti-War Demonstration in Washington, DC

Professional Staff Congress joins anti-war rally in front of the capital building in Washington, DC.

Professional Staff Congress Joins Anti-War Protest in Washington D.C.

Photograph of Professional Staff Congress, the union of CUNY faculty and staff, demonstrating with students in Washington, D.C., 2011.

PSC Rally with Children

This photograph was used by the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) as part of its campaign against a 50% tenure quota policy for academic departments that had been announced by Chancellor Robert Kibbee, and then approved by the Board of Higher [...]

Audience at First PSC Contract Rally

This October 1972 mass meeting at the Marc Ballroom at Union Square, New York came at a time when the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) was deadlocked with CUNY administration during negotiations for the union's first contract following its creation [...]

Lobby Efforts in Albany, NY

Belle Zeller, Professional Staff Congress (PSC) president, was a frequent visitor to the New York legislators, first on behalf of the Legislative Conference, and then, after the merger, for the PSC. Here, in 1973, she is joined by State Senator John [...]

Rally Demanding Progress in Contract Negotiations

This photograph captures a rally held by the Professional Staff Congress during their deadlock with CUNY administration over the terms of a new contract in 1973. As negotiations stalled, the PSC held a number of rallies demanding that CUNY [...]

Bus Ride to Albany Rally

Belle Zeller, Professional Staff Congress (PSC) president, can be seen at the right with Israel Kugler, the union's deputy president standing at the back. The photo was taken on a bus trip to Albany to rally in support of Open Admissions. The PSC [...]

Picketing at Baruch College

The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) picketed in favor of Open Admissions, among other things, in front of Baruch College in February 1973. Their efforts to save Open Admissions from budget cuts presaged the struggles that would come with fiscal [...]

Tenure Quota Rally

Carrying a sign that reads "Tenure Means Academic Freedom," Irwin Polishook, Vice President of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), is joined by Carol Brandon, a union leader from the Borough of Manhattan Community College, at a rally against [...]

PSC Contract Rally

The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) struggled to win its first contract from CUNY in 1972 and 1973. It called on support from others in the labor movement to help put pressure on the CUNY administration. At this meeting, President Belle Zeller of [...]

General Membership Meeting - Hostos PSC Chapter

This flier announces a general membership meeting of the Hostos Community College chapter of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC). The PSC is the union that represents faculty and staff employed by the City University of New York. The PSC was a [...]

Letter to PSC President Irwin H. Polishook from Candido Antonio de Leon, Hostos President

By June of 1976, when it became clear that Hostos Community College would be saved from closure, the President of the college, Candido Antonio de Leon wrote a letter to the President of the Professional Staff Congress, Irwin Polishook, thanking him [...]

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